happening now, the romney campaign fills in some big blanks releasing details of years of the candidate's income taxes. the white house race becomes the battle of the gaffes with president obama firing the latest shot. plus, the deadly attack on an american consulate. there are now growing indications it was revenge. i'm wolf blitzer.

you're in "the situation room." after days of unfavorable headlines, they change in a dramatic way. critics long been hounding romney for them suggesting he had something to hide. let's go to our national political correspondent jim acosta traveling with our romney campaign in las vegas right now. fill us in on the blanks, jim. what do we know? >> reporter: well, wolf, as you know mitt romney has said throughout this campaign that he only plans to release two years of tax returns to the voters. and today he finished up that assignment. he put out his 2011 tax return just within the last hour to go along with his 2010 tax return that was already released by the campaign. show you some of the numbers from that 2011 return we just

got in the last hour. according to this 2011 return he paid nearly $2 million in taxes on $14 million in income for an effective tax rate of 14%. but listen to this, wolf, he donated $4 million to charity but only claimed $2.25 million of those contributions as a deduction. they reduced that deduction, the campaign says, to conform the past statements. you'll recall earlier this year mitt romney released his 2011 estimate, that 2011 estimate showed he paid an effective tax rate of 13%. potentially had mitt romney claimed that $4 million -- that full $4 million number, he potentially would have had a lower tax rate than that 13%. the other number that comes out of this, wolf, the romney campaign put out a summary from its tax preparer -- from romney's tax preparer showing that he had paid a 20% tax rate according to the campaign over

the last 20 years. that apparently is going at that charge from harry reed. you'll recall he made that last month that mitt romney paid no income taxes over a 10-year period. and, wolf, this document dump comes after a week long war of words over gaffes. at president obama's campaign stop of the day in virginia, there was only one number on his mind. 47%. >> i don't see a lot of victims in this crowd today. >> reporter: for democrats it's been the low hanging fruit of the week, the hidden video of mitt romney talking about the 47% of americans he said were dependent on government. but as the week has made it painfully clear to voters, two can play the gaffe game. take president obama at a candidate's forum in mimeny. >> i've learned some lessons over the last four years. and the most important lesson i've learned is you can't change

washington from the inside. you can only change it from the outside. >> reporter: romney aides needily were on the attack. >> the president said he can't change washington from inside, he can only change it from outside. >> what about your gaffes? >> reporter: the debate over gaffes have replaced what both campaigns claimed they've always wanted, an exchange of ideas over substance. >> i'd have to say either this year we set a new record for gaffes, or we're looking harder. it's one or the other. i hope this doesn't sound too cynical, but i really believe that they don't want to discuss many of the tough issues. >> reporter: the obama campaign claimed the line was taken out of context, it retaliated with a video that took romney out of context. that didn't stop the rnc from firing off its own video. it was once thought paul ryan's addition to the ticket would elevate the discussion. ryan's discussions on medicare

can ignite passions as they did at the speech before the aarp. >> the first step to a stronger medicare is to repeal obama care. because it represents the worst of both worlds. i had a feeling there would be mixed reaction. so let me get into it. >> reporter: with punants complaining, ann romney told me an iowa station she's had enough of the second guessing. >> stop it. this is hard. you want to try it? get in the ring. >> reporter: and tax records from that release from the romney campaign earlier today, wolf, the campaign also put out letters from the physicians for both mitt romney and paul ryan on their health. and those letters both say mitt romney and paul ryan are in excellent health and that they can face the rigors of the upcoming campaign, wolf. >> not surprised to hearthat. jim acosta, thanks very much. let's dig deeper into mitt

romney's newly released tax information. christine romans has been crunching the numbers for us. christine, it looks like his campaign as we just heard from jim significantly overestimated mitt romney's 2011 income. what's going on here? >> well, one of the reasons is in 2010 he made about $21 million. soor his 2011 estimated return we saw earlier this year, the campaign estimated it was a $21 million. reason why it can be so off quite frankly is because mitt romney makes his money from investments. almost entirely from investments. $13.9 million in income last year because of investments. so even the campaign in a statement to us saying that because investments can depreciate or gain, the beginning of the year was difficult to properly assess exactly how much money he would make. so $21 million is what he made in 2010, that's what they estimated this year. this is how big it all is. some 400 pages, wolf. we're going through it and i'm finding a lot of things we'd

suspected we'd also seen in 2010 including investments or accounts that go through the cayman islands. a lot of different kinds of investment accounts overall. his auditor saying they're all perfectly legal, that he has paid all of the taxes owed and his tax rate 14.1%. why isn't it, wolf, the 35%, which is the marginal tax rate of someone who is as rich as mitt romney? that's because mitt romney as i said makes almost all of his money on investments. and investments are taxed at 15%. they are not taxed at 35% like work is in this country. like labor is or the work that a working person would do that you would, you know, an hourly worker at a company for example, wolf. >> that explains the 15% or so tax rate as opposed to the 35% which is the highest rate right now if president obama got his way would go back up to 39.6%, which is where it was during the clinton administration. he also released as we heard a summary of 20 years of taxes from 1990 to 2009.

not all the tax returns, only two actual tax returns, 2010 and 2011. a summary of all the other years. >> that's right. >> you've been going through that summary. what's jumping out at you? >> it jumps out at me that the average tax effective federal tax rate is 20%. that's what price, water, house cooper says, 20%. he never paid less than a13.6% federal tax rate, which is what the campaign had been telling us all along. but he's not releasing, wolf, those actual returns, 20 years of those returns. just a notarized letter from his auditor saying that he paid all the taxes he was owed. he did pay taxes. and the average rate was 20%. i put another number on that screen, the 5.7%. you hear a lot about how mitt romney doesn't pay as much as the middle class. the effective tax rate for middle income families right in the middle is 5.7% because middle income families have deductions too like for mortgage interest, for their kids, for all kinds of different things as well. but i don't mean to suggest that

mitt romney's tax return looks middle income at all. mitt romney is among the top one-tenth of 1% of household earners in this country no question. and he's taxed at a rate far below the 35% rate that is the advertised rate for someone of his wealth, wolf. >> christine romans, thanks very much. let's talk about the political implications of the news today. our chief political analyst gloria borger is joining us. first of all, gloria, what do you make of the timing of the release of all this information? >> let's see, what time is it, wolf? on a friday afternoon, sort of around 4:00, not a bad time to release something that you really want to minimize the conversation on. so friday afternoons are tried and true time to do that. but i'd also have to say if you look at the rest of the campaign, wolf, there wasn't a lot of windows available to them. mitt romney had promised to release these 2011 eturns. and you have his ohio bus tour coming up. then of course we have the first

presidential debate on october 3rd. didn't want to release it too close to that. didn't want it to become topic a of the conversation in his very important first debate. and continue along with the other presidential and vice presidential debates. if you're looking at a calendar and i know the romney cam pay pain is saying we released it because we just got it, but if you were looking at the calendar, you would say this is probably the least worst time to release it. >> you know, back in july the obama campaign had a commercial, a political attack ad on romney. i'm going to play a little clip of it. watch this. >> tax havens, offshore accounts, carried interest. mitt romney has used every trick in the book. romney admits that over the last two years he's paid less than 15% in taxes on $43 million in income. makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all. >> well, the summary that was released today show he did pay taxes in every one of those years. remember, the senate majority

leader harry reed flatly said that he had inside information from bain capital that mitt romney for ten years didn't pay any taxes at all if you believe the summary that came out today notarized by this accounting firm, he did pay taxes every single year. >> right. and we're waiting to hear from harry reed. we know he'll have something to say on this. presumably what they're trying to do is blunt the argument. but of course, wolf, the argument is going to continue largely because of what you say that it is a summary of those tax returns over those 20 years, that it is not a detailed accounting of those tax returns. and theye ti going to tk about mitt romney's relationship to bain capital, mitt romney's offshore investments, how he sheltered his income. so i think you're going to see this debate continue. although price waterhouse coopers did notarize the statement as christine pointed out that said that in fact romney had paid taxes every year over the last 20 years with an

effective rate of 20%. what's interesting to me, wolf, is that they went back 20 years because you have to presume that when mitt romney was earning income 20 years ago, he was probably paying a higher rate of tax than he's paying now when it's on investment unearned income. so they went back 20 years and said, okay, on the average over the 20 years it's about a 20% rate. >> yeah. christine points out, 15% for the investment income as opposed to 35% or 39%. in those days it was about 30 -- i don't remember what it was. >> above 30. >> it was much higher than it was right now in 1989, 1990 and all of that. so we'll continue to watch this story. but i think you're right, the democrats will find plenty to criticize here. this argument is not going to go away. >> you bet. >> thank you. much more on this story by the way coming up later. al also other news following the attack that stunned the united states, shocked the world, was

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send your love to the rescue. donate today. a massive protest against militias thousands of people march in the streets of libya. voicing their anger at the armed factions operating so freely and violently in the city. one militia is linked to the attack on the united states consulate that killed the u.s. ambassador, chris stevens, last week and three other americans. let's dig a little deeper right now th our senior international correspondent arwa damon in benghazi. also joining us david ignatius, the columnist for "the washington post." david, let me start with you. you have some information, fascinating and intriguing information that the attack on the consulate may have been linked to al qaeda operatives in libya as a revenge plot. what exactly are you hearing? >> wolf, i heard from a source who has good sources on the

ground in the libyan underground that the talk there was that the attack on the u.s. consulate that killed our ambassador stevens on september 11 last week was conceived as by the people who did it, an act of revenge to retaliate for the drone attack that killed a key al qaeda operative and planner. i ran that yesterday by a u.s. intelligence official who said that although some of the elements that i'd heard did not check out that they had heard the same thing. they'd heard this talk of revenge for the killing as a motive for the attack on the consulate in benghazi. so the u.s. government has been hearing the same thing that i picked up from my source. >> that would seem to suggest,

david, i'm going to bring arwa into this conversation in a second, that it was all pre-planned, a pretty carefully orchestrated hit on the ambassador and the three others. >> let me just caution on that, wolf. i asked specifically because the information i'd been given was that a brother now in libya fighng group, which is an al qaeda affiliate, had been responsible for planning it. the u.s. intelligence official said, no, we don't have information that confirms that. we are hearing this idea that it was revenge. but i have to be clear with your viewers, in terms of the specific individual and the preplanned aspect, i don't have confirmation. >> arwa, you've been digging. you've spoken to a lot of people on the scene in benghazi or tripoli, met with the prime minister of libya. is that consistent, david's information, with what you're

hearing? >> reporter: well, libyan officials are not going so far as to say that this was a revenge attack. in fact, the prime minister was saying that the individuals who they do believe carried out this assault were not in fact linked to al qaeda. they were however extremist islamist militants. more of a loose coalition of individuals with different affiliations with various and many extremist groups that do operate here but not necessarily it was an attack carried out by one entity in and of itself. that being said the prime minister does believe that this was a preplanned attack. if you look at the coordination that went into the initial assault on the consulate from eyewitnesses on the ground, we're hearing that the attack initially came from three different directions. and then of course a few hours later when those embassy staffers -- consulate staffers had evacuated to what was supposed to be a safe location, there was then according to libyan officials and more

sophisticated sorted attack but one using even heavier artillery used the first time around all indications it was a preplanned attack. whether or not it was specifically timed to be carried out on september 11th, that at this point is unclear. this very much could have been a plan put together and then put on the shelf and then the target of opportunity of course presenting itself as those demonstrations broke out in egypt initially providing potentially cover for those to then carry out the attack against the american consulate in benghazi, wolf. >> david, what does it say to you that apparently no organization has put out a statement claiming credit or responsibility for killing the american ambassador and the three other americans? under normal circumstances if al qaeda did it, wouldn't we be seeing a videotape, wouldn't we be hearing someone boast about this? >> that would have been the m.o. of the al qaeda of osama bin laden.

another important thing that my source told me -- again, there was some confirmation of this from the u.s. intelligence official i checked it with is that the new leader of al qaeda has called since 2007 for what he speaks of as a global -- with which al qaeda would interact. in other words, al qaeda would try to use the rage that's on the streets in the muslim world, which we see so visibly, as a way to assist its attacks. the terrorist spectaculars carefully planned devastating effect public claim of credit afterwards that were bin laden's specialty. that's not the direction that zawahiri said they should move. i hear from these sources in libya that in libya and your

brave correspondent's the one who'd know best, they're speaking about this as the al qaeda -- again, the phrase a global entifada which they would be linked. >> david, i know you have to go. arwa, don't go yet. tell us what happened today. the demonstrations. i guess there was some violence. update our viewers on what happened today in benghazi also in tripoli. >> reporter: there were two demonstrations in benghazi today, wolf. both of whom and the confrontation we saw between the two very much going to one of the core issues that the government here has to deal with. the significantly larger demonstration was called save benghazi carried out by individuals who do believe in democracy who were demanding an end to the armed militias wanting to see a formation of a truly nationalistic army and police force. also demanding an end to the

impunity with which these militias can operate wanting the government to pass legislation that would in fact criminalize them. and going even further to say they were demonstrating for freedom of speech. i met one woman at this demonstration who had had two of her sons killed during the revolution. and she said they paid such a high price in blood that libya absolutely had to change. now, these demonstrators, these pro-democracy demonstrators moved towards the square in benghazi that had already been occupied by -- and its supporters. they said they were demonstrating against the depiction, the film that came out with the horribly degrading images of prophet muhammad and of course the french cartoons and also say they were proclaiming their innocence when it came to the attack against the u.s. consulate. the libyan government, if you'll remember, has in fact detained individuals that says it does believe we're responsible for that attack. that the group as itself is not.

these two groups did end up converging coming head-to-head. there was some scuffle. there was a lot of shouting. but it really went to underscore this issue that the government here has to deal with. the vast majority of the population is demanding change. it is demanding an end to the armed entities. and it has to figure out a way to deal with this extremist albeit minority, but it does need to somehow reconcile these two sides. wolf. >> arwa damon reporting for us from benghazi. arwa, thanks very much. much more by the way on what's going on in libya. senator john mccain, the ranking member of the senate armed services committee is standing by to join us live in the next hour. we've also received mitt romney and paul ryan's medical records today. our own dr. sanjay gupta has been going over there. sanjay is standing by to join us live. would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb.

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a dramatic hostage standoff unfolding in pittsburgh today. lisa sylvester's monitoring that and some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. lisa, what happened? >> hi, wolf. well, pittsburgh police tell cnn that a suspected gunman holding one person hostage at a downtown high-rise has now surrendered and is in custody. police say no one was harmed in what they are calling a happy resolution. the suspect entered the building this morning and allegedly claimed to have a bomb. police have identified him as 22-year-old klein michael thaxton. a former army private and has a criminal record. vice president joe biden is urging iraq to stop weapons from going to syria through iraqi air space. this as syria's president insists the door is open.

bashar al assad blame's syria's 18-month-long civil war on armed terrorists but says he would offer amnesty to anyone who puts down their weapons. opposition activists say at least 100 people have been killed in fighting today. and fishermen in hawaii they have spotted a large dock drifting toward awahu. it's about 30-feet by 50-feet. that could be dangerous for boats in the area especially those at night. the coast guard is now putting out a warning. and take a look at what happened during a champion's league soccer match in iran this week. a player, he picked up an object lying on the ground and tossed it aside. you see it right there. it then exploded. turns out it was a minigrenade or live explosive. the players and game officials ran for cover. luckily no one was hurt. it is believed, wolf, that a fan actually threw the grenade on to the playing area. and that is pretty spectacular video. that player obviously who picked

that up very lucky that he did not lose a hand there, wolf. >> yeah. very lucky indeed. wow. that's amazing. thanks, lisa. mitt romney says president obama's waving the white flag of surrender. it's but the latest flashpoint in the presidential campaign. donna brazile and david frum, they are standing by live to talk about this. our strategy session is next. president obama: i'm barack obama and i approve... this message. anncr: he keeps saying it... mitt romney: this president cannot tell us that you're... better off today than when he took office. anncr: well... here's where we were in 2008... tv anncr: the worst financial collapse...

since the great depression... tv anncr: american workers were laid off in numbers not seen... in over three decades. anncr: and here's where we are today... thirty months of private sector job growth. creating 4.6 million new jobs. we're not there yet. but the real question is: whose plan is better for you? the president's plan asks millionaires... to pay a little more... to help invest in a strong middle class. clean energy. and cut the deficit. mitt romney's plan? a new 250,000 dollar tax break for... multi-millionaires. roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy. and raise taxes on the middle class. president clinton: they want to go back to the same old... policies that got us in trouble in the first place. president obama: we're not going back, we are moving forward. anncr: forward.

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lot of pressure to release his tax returns. today he released his tax return for 2011. earlier he released his tax return for 2010. but those two years alone, is that enough? let's discuss it. our strategy session joining cnn contributor, democratic strategist donna brazile. and cnn contributor, david frum, contributing editor at "the daily beast" and "newsweek." is it enough, david? he released a summary of those 20 years. >> enough for what? i think there's certainly enough for people to make an assessment based on what they know. they have a pretty good idea of romney's tax situation. they can decide for themselves how they feel about it. it's not enough if you're looking to do a maximum troll hoping to find some discrediting information. it's impressive he gives as much to charity as he does. and it's also negatively impressive how much of a story that the romney campaign has allowed this to become.

it could have been headed off earlier. >> there aren't a lot of politicians, donna, who give 15% if not more to charity alone. he makes a lot of money through his investments, but that's still a lot -- rich people don't even do that. david's got a point about the charitable contributions. >> yes, wolf. perhaps this year he gave more than ever before because of course he's releasing h complete set of returns. is it enough? who knows, wolf. because what we've seen thus far is that mitt romney has been reluctant to really disclose all of the information. is he still hiding or sheltering his money overseas? how much foreign taxes? i don't know. i'm not a tax accountant. i think this story will perhaps live on for another couple days. you know the old saying, it's friday, someone is dumping bad news somewhere and mitt romney today dumped his taxes so we can get off the 47% comment he made video. >> i want to get back to that comment. i want to play some sound bites for david in a second.

but, donna, it looks basically if you believe this notarized statement of the 20 years of tax returns, he did pay taxes in all those years. so it would seem if you believe this harry reed, the senate majority leader, was flat wrong when he said for ten years that mitt romney had inside information supposedly from someone at bain capital. he didn't pay any federal income taxes. it looks like he was wrong on that, right? >> well, i haven't seen the documentation. was that an average of the last 20 years? or was that the actual returns and income and so forth? again, i'm not a tax accountant. in fact, i don't even want to call my tax accountant. you know that's an expensive proposition as well. truth of the matter is he has put forward the 2011 returns. and i still believe it will raise a significant number of questions. >> i'll be anxious to hear the reaction from harry reed. i want to move on. do you want to say anything else, david? >> well, i thank you for making the point about harry reed. i think that was really a reckless thing.

harry reed is not just some back venture, he's the senate majority leader. it looks like he went for probably had good reason to believe something not true simply in order to score a point go prove me wrong. that's not a good way to do business especially for one of the leading constitutional officers in the u.s. government. >> well, question may be why would he go out with it if he thought it was wrong simply for political reasons. do you think harry reed, david, would do something that reckless? >> no, he wouldn't. >> yeah, i do. harry reed is he is not one of the more dignified senate majority leaders. he's very much a hard puncher, he's very much a partisan. i think he was willing to trade the hit to his reputation that e ven in order to run against the romney. >> i'm willing to give harry reed the benefit of the doubt. somebody i suspect told him that maybe for ten years he didn't pay taxes. and he went with it.

but i don't think he went with it knowing it was false. that would be incredibly stupid. >> he's not one that shoots from the hip. we have a lot of politicians who do that. >> all right. >> i still believe that harry reed had a point in raising that mitt romney should release the full -- all of his -- >> that's different. that's different than saying i have inside information he didn't pay taxes. that is a star starcharge, whh is completely reputuated by the summary that was released today. let's move on. i'm going to play some clips. actually, you know what -- i don't know if we have time for another round of this conversation. do we have time for another round of this conversation? all right. let me play these clips right now. back and forth between mitt romney, the president starting with this clip. this is obama yesterday at univision. listen to this. >> do i think that i've learned some lessons over the last four year and the most important lesson i've learned is that you can't

change washington from the inside. you can only change it from the outside. that's how i got elected. >> the president today threw in the white flag of surrender again. he said he can't change washington from inside. he can only change it from outside. well, we're going to give him that chance in november. he's going outside. i can change washington. i will change washington. we'll get the job done from the inside. republicans and democrats will come together. >> for some reason my opponent got really excited. he re-wrote his speech real quick. he stood up at a rally, proudly declared i'll get the job done from the inside. what kind of inside job is he talking about? >> let me start with david. what do you think about this exchange? it's sort of frustrating. you want them to be arguing over real substan rather than this

silly stuff. >> that struck me as a speech writer, friendly fire -- unfriendly fire exchange campaign rhetoric turning words in a clever way. you know, one of the things that i was struck by today that is serious, my colleague reported this morning the continuing unraveling of the administration's story about what happened in benghazi. and more and more evidence based on report from people who are there, people inside the national security service story of this is a spontaneous event that could not have been known in advance, nothing could have been done to protect the ambassador. that story's continuing to unravel. i thought that was the top news story of the day. and i suppose that this kind of argument is more convenient for the president. >> donna. >> i agree. that's a very important story. we should get the information from the administration. but we're in this phase where we're doing a gaffe a day. i guess this is gaffe week 2.0. >> as it is. well-said, donna.

thanks very, very much, guys. appreciate it. congress adjourns, but will its unfinished business spin the u.s. right back into recession? we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day

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if placing became were an achievement, you could say congress accomplished quite a bit for adjourning. but the fact is gridlock still rules on capitol hill even when it comes to the looming deadline that will force drastic spending cuts across the board, possibly sending the u.s. back into

recession. cnn's senior congressional correspondent dana bash joining us from capitol hill. dana, what happened? >> reporter: well, if you look around me it looks pretty empty, i think. that's because it is. check this out. this is the house. they're gone. they left several hours ago to go home and campaign. and over here the senate, they're not far behind. in fact, this is the earliest, wolf, in more than half a century that congress is leaving town to go home and campaign. and it's probably pretty fitting for one of the most unproductive sessions in recent history. the capitol parking lot full of cars ready to whisk house members out of town. but not before both sides took final turns in the blame game that has voters fed up. >> this is simply irresponsible and republicans ought to come back and finh their work not cut and run and walk away from the american people.

shame on them. >> president obama won't work with us to find common ground or urge senate democrats to take action. why? it's because democrats have failed to lead. >> reporter: the list of unfinished business is seemingly endless. the farm bill, a five-year measure governing everything from farming to food stamps and runs out at the end of this month, it includes disaster relief for drought-stricken farmers. many issues both parties want to address are trapped in partisan gridlock, cyber security, postal reform, even extending the violence against women act which expires at the end of the year. never mind the really tough stuff, namely the so-called fiscal cliff. when the bush era tax cuts expire and some $100 billion in spending cuts kick in on december 31st. anyone who may wonder why congress has a remarkably low approval rating should watch and listen. watch the bipartisan exodus to go campaign. and listen as each party scours

the other. >> never before, never, have a president and a majority party in the senate done so little to address challenges as great as the ones our nation faces right now. >> it's a wonder we've gotten anything done at all considering the lack of cooperation democrats have gotten from republican colleagues. >> there are nearly 40 of our jobs bills sitting over in the united states senate. all part of our plan for american job creators. >> congressional republicans want to run away. but, you know what? you can run, but you cannot hide from your record. >> they haven't passed a budget in more than three years. >> time and time again republican colleagues have stalled or blocked perfectly good piece olegislation to score points with the tea party. >> they haven't passed a single appropriation bill. they haven't passed a defense authorization bill for the first time in a half a century. these things are usually about as standard as turning the

lights on. they haven't done any of them. it's a disgrace. >> reporter: now, congress is doing one very important thing before leaving, that is funding the government for the next six months to make sure it doesn't shut down while they're gone. but, wolf, that's not exactly worthy of accolades because the only reason they have to pass that stopgap measure is because they have sent none, none of the 12 spending bills they're supposed to to the president's desk, wolf. >> so the real action will be after november 6th, after the election. the lame duck session between then and january. they got a lot of work to do then. >> reporter: whole lot. >> a lot will depend on the makeup of the new house, senate and who's going to be the next president. >> reporter: it's all going to be about political leverage. whomever has it is going to do much better. and everybody agrees on that, republicans and democrats. >> less traffic in washington, d.c. with all those members out of town. thanks very much for that. the real world impact for proposed changes to medicaid, one family tells us it was their only option and now they're

fearing the future. [ woman ] it's 32 minutes to go time, and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well.

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millions more americans could end up paying a big tax penalty under the new obama health care law when they can least afford it. cnn's lisa sylvester's back. she's got more information. what's going on? >> wolf, it was originally estimated in 2010 that four million people could be penalized for not having health insurance. but now the tax penalty could actually hit six million people. and one reason is that some states may choose not to expand medicaid. another reason is the economy, unemployment remains high. and some individuals particularly those with pre-existing conditions might have a hard time getting health insurance. 60-year-old sue has seen the ups

and downs of life. she was laid off last year. now she's out of a job and out of health insurance. >> since i have been this age that i am now and faced with the prospects of buying my own insurance through the private sector that it's become so difficult because it is extremely expensive. and i'm just saying if this law goes into effect the wayi unrstats going to be aardship for me. >> she's referring to the new federal health care law. she and virtually all other u.s. residents will have to have health insurance by 2014. if not, they'll face a financial penalty, collected by the irs. new numbers from the nonpartisan congressional budget office finds that 6 million americans will likely have to pay that penalty. >> people who are affected by it are the so-called working poor. they're working, they're making some income. they're making enough so they wouldn't be eligible for medicaid. but it's real hand-to-mouth. it's day-to-day living on their part.

>> starting off in 2014 the penalty will be capped at $285 for a family, or 1% of income. but by 2016 it reaches $2,085 per family or 2.5% of income. at the healing hands community health center in oklahoma city, susan is the program coordinator. she insured. but to insure hur family, it would cost $700 a month. money she doesn't have. >> if you don't have any income, how are you going to pay the federal tax? i mean, to me it's a no-brainer. if there's no money, there's no money. >> reporter: the department of health and human services is quick to point out that 98% of americans will not be impacted by the penalty. and through state exchanges, health insurance will become more affordable. the obama administration in a statement saying "the health care law creates a new marketplace where consumers can purchase private health insurance and get tax credits to make insurance more affordable. thanks to the health care law,

more than 20 million middle class people and families will get a significant tax cut averaging about $4,000." now, it is hard to know how this will all play out. the working poor coulbe eligible for a waiver or those who can't afford health insurance might just get care the way many do now, at the emergency room. wolf. >> all right. thanks very much, lisa, for that report. complaints about the map app on the new iphone 5. we have details next. ♪

s ] [ male announcer ] if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... ♪ [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] zyrtec®. love the air. join zyrtec® rewards. save up to $7 on zyrtec® products. anncr: he keeps saying it... obama and i approve... mitt romney: this present cannot tell tt u're... better off today than when he took office. anncr: well... here's where we were in 2008... tv anncr: the worst financial collapse... since the great depression... tv anncr: american workers were laid off in numbers not seen... in over three decades. anncr: and here's where we are today... thirty months of private sector job growth.

creating 4.6 million new jobs. we're not there yet. but the real question is: whose plan is betteror you? the president's plan asks millionaires... to pay a little more... to help invest in a strong middle class. clean energy. and cut the deficit. mitt romney's plan? a new 250,000 dollar tax break for... multi-millionaires. roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy. and raise taxes on the middle class. president clinton: they want to go back to the same old... policies that got us in trouble in the first place. president obama: we're not going back, we are moving forward. anncr: forward.

[ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. so i brought it to mike at meineke. we gave her car a free road handling check. i like free. free is good. my money. my choice. my meineke. the new iphone 5 is out today, but there are already some grumblings about changes to the map app. here's cnn's brian todd. >> wolf, here's the product that everyone is talking about, the

new apple iphone 5. it's a huge hit its first day on the market. millions of them sold. users are saying that it is lighter, faster, has a bigger screen than the old version. those are the positive reviews. it does have one big negative review though, many users are complaining that the map application is faulty. that it can't find some locations properly. doesn't take you to some locations at all that you know exist. can't find them at all on the map. so we're going to test it out. the one reason for this is this is a new application that apple is launching on a new operating system. for years apple used google products, it's now moving away from google and competing with google in the map application realm. the new apple application for maps can also be applied to ipads. so we're going to demonstrate using an ipad because the screen is bigger and you can see it a bit better. we're demonstrating it trying to find cnn in washington on the map as well as a local hotel. we typed in howard johnson's on the new apple map app knowing

this hotel in northeast washington has been here for several years. when it came up, it did not show this location, but others in this area that are many miles away. compare that to google's map application and this address comes up on the first try. let's try cnn washington, d.c. and see where it takes us. okay. heading there now. here we are now as close as we can get to the spot it told us to go. but hold on a second. that's the south lawn of the white house. the apple map failed to put us in the right spot the first few times we tried it. in response to the complaints, an apple spokeswoman told us they launched the new map service knowing it's an ambitious project. they are committed to continuously improving it. and the more people use that application, the better it will get. wolf. and you're in "the situation room." happening now, mitt romney about to speak publicly for the first time since releasing his new tax information. as joe biden blasts him for those controversial comments on a so-called 47%, you're going to

hear from both of them live this hour. plus, senator john mccain furious with the obama administration's handling of the attack that killed the united states ambassador and three otr americans in libya. i'll ask him what went wrong inside a high-level closed door intelligence briefing on capitol hill. and first on cnn, the united states expected to remove a major iranian exile group from its terror list. we're going to tell you why. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." but we just want to report what's coming in right now. the plane carrying ann romney, the wife of the republican presidential nominee, a plane carrying ann romney had to make an emergency landing in colorado this afternoon. the campaign says everyone on board is safe. let me quickly add a campaign aide tells our owns ares a rache

was smoke reported in the cabin, emergency crewmehe plane on the runway. it landed at 4:25 p.m. eastern in denver. no one was hurt. once again, mrs. romney had been in omaha for a fundraiser earlier on friday. we're told by romney campaign aides that ann romney and mitt romney spoke by phone immediately after the plane landed. we don't know why there was smoke in the cabin. we don't know what happened. but we do know it was an emergency landing. and crews met the plane on the runway. so that's what we know. we'll get some more information. fortunately, everyone is okay right now. we'll update you with more. other news we're following, first to the battle over one of the most controversial issues in the bitter race for the white house. we're talking about medicare. president obama and his vice presidential rival paul ryan each trying to convince the aarp, a leading advocacy group for seniors, that the other isn't telling the truth.

and for ryan at times it seemed to be a tough sell. our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is fact-checking the candidates. she's joining us now. jessica. >> reporter: hi, wolf. that's right. congressman paul ryan did get booed when he said the romney administration would repeal obama care. that's not entirely surprising because the organization he was speaking to, aarp, came out in support of the president's signature health care plan obama care. we frequently hear president obama say on the trail as he did today, wolf, that if mitt romney is elected president, he would voucherize medicare and that would cost seniors more. so we wanted to take a look at what is true. here's what we found. medicare, the program's future has become a tug of war in the fight for the senior vote. speaking to the aarp friday, the president said mitt romney's plan would. >> turn medicare into a voucher program and essentially transfer those costs onto seniors. >> reporter: not true says

congressman paul ryan who insists romney's vision based largely on ryan's own budget would let seniors -- >> choose the coverage that works best for them from a list of plans required to offer at least the same level of benefits as traditional medicare. >> reporter: so we're breaking down the claims. the obama campaign argues -- >> mitt romney would take away medicare's guaranteed benefits. >> reporter: factcheck.org agrees under romney/ryan's proposal, medicare could cost recipients more. >> it's definitely a possibility that under this romney/ryan plan, seniors in the future would have to pay more to keep a traditional medicare plan. you know, it could vary from region to region where traditional medicare could be cheaper in some areas of the country. >> reporter: but it's impossible to know because in the romney/ryan proposal. >> there's not a lot of detail. there are a lot of little details to be worked out.

and the other big part of it is that we just haven't done this before. >> reporter: factcheck.org also takes issue with the obama campaign's claim that romney/ryan would -- >> turn medicare into a voucher program. >> seniors aren't left with a voucher and on their own to find health insurance. seniors would pick a plan, but then the payment goes directly to the insurance company. >> reporter: there's one way the two sides agree. >> they both want to cut the growth of medicare spending. and they're really not that far apart on how much of a reduction that they want. they just have a big philosophil differencen to do that. >> reporter: wolf, here's the g democrats argue thatnder the romney/ryan plan the private insurance companies would pick out the healthiest beneficiaries leaving the sickest people in traditional medicare and that would drive up the cost of medicare for people who want to use it. the republicans argue that's simply not the case because the

whole point of the romney/ryan plan is to drive down costs for all health care providers. we just can't know because it's never been tried. and we don't have all the details, wolf. >> and this is such a huge issue, the future of medicare, especially in states with senior citizens like florida, for example. it's really playing out over there. and it may explain, jessica, why the president at least according to the most recent polls in the state like florida seems to be better than romney right now. >> reporter: absolutely. it's become a major issue especially since paul ryan got in the campaign because as you know, this was one of the major issues he has taken on since he came into public prominence, wolf. >> we keep hearing nancy pelosi, the minority leader in the house of representatives, the former speaker, she keeps on saying that with romney on the ticket, she thinks the democrats have an excellent chance of picking up those 25 seats and becoming the majority in the house of representatives. >> reporter: we'll see. >> maybe she would be the speaker again. that may be more wishful thinking than reality. but we shall see. she says it with passion.

>> reporter: yeah. >> thanks very much. we're waiting to hear from mitt romney by the way. he's getting ready to speak at unlv, the university of nevada in las vegas. you're seeing live pictures there someone speaking before him. but eventually he will go up there. we'll go there. we'll listen in to hear what he has to say. this will be his first appearance since releasing more of his tax information a couple hours or so ago. romney is ending what's been a tough political week putting the focus back on another source of his headaches on the trail is taxes. today the campaign as i said released the 2011 tax returns. earlier they released the 2010 tax returns. they released summary information about other tax returns over 20 years, not the tax returns themselves. joining us now to talk about the impact of all of this, if any, it could have on the presidential race. our chief political correspondent candy crowley, the anchor of cnn's "state of the union." candy, what do you think of romney releasing his tax return

and summary of other returns today. >> 2012 tax returns, i don't think anyone's going to learn anything different than they didn't know before. the first is that mitt romney is a very wealthy man. the bulk of his money is coming from investments and he gives a lot to charity. and because his income is investment, he pays the investment tax and that's around 14%, 15%. we knew that from his previous tax returns. and i think it's more interesting the sort of summary that we were given, the notarized summary from his tax folks saying look, over the past 20 years he's paid on average off his adjusted gross income about 20% in taxes, he's given x amount in charities. i don't think that the folks who have wanted and have been using this issue of mitt romney's tax returns as a way to kind of say he's hiding something, they're not going to be satisfied with

this sort of summary. and i think the folks if there are any that were waiting to see what his tax returns were, might well be satisfied with this before they made up their minds, but i just don't think in the main it changes much. >> all right. let's move on, candy cht i want to play for you some of the back and forth that's been going on out there on the campaign trail between mitt romney and president obama. listen to this. >> the president today threw in the white flag of surrender again. he said he can't change washington from inside. he can only change it from outside. well, we're going to give him that chance in november. he's going outside. >> he stood up in a rally, proudly declared, i'll get the job done from the inside. what kind of inside job is he talking about? >> all right. candy, what's your interpretation of what's going on here? >> that sounds like word play to me. this is the kind of stuff that's

great to talk about and have some fun with the crowd, get those who are going to come out and see you and be all enthusiastic, all revved up to go vote and to help out your campaign in these final couple of months. but it's kind of word play. it does hit to one of the weaknesses of president obama, which he wasn't able to change the tone in washington. but i just don't think that moves the meter much either. in the end this is still about the economy. i think what mitt romney is doing is what conservatives have been saying the whole past week, get out there and fight for this. i think that's why you see him the way he is. but in general i don't think the whole inside/outside thing is some big issue that's going to change this race. >> yeah, i agree with you completely. candy, give us a little sense, a lot of people say romney didn't have a good week maybe the last two or three weeks. not so good. what does he need to do at this late stage in the game to reset, to get his campaign moving in the right direction? >> you know, if i really knew, i

would get them to hire me for a lot of money. i mean, he clearly has to shake up this race. we go into the fall and it is very clear it's advantage obama. so thenous is on mitt romney if he is to win toind a way to turn that upside down. we know the biggest chances for him really are the debates when he's going to be side-by-side with the president. and folks -- the persuadables and the folks who haven't made up their mind can take a look. but how mitt romney shakes up this race, i don't know. i think that's what they're working on right now. they keep talking about resetting and he's going to go out there and he's going to be tougher. he's, you know, going to give us some more details of his plan because that's what people want to know. we'll see if he does and we'll see if it shakes up the race. but he clearly needs to change the feel of this right now. >> he certainly does. candy's going to have a lot more coming up sunday morning on "state of the union" 9:00 a.m. eastern. we'll be watching.

candy, appreciate it very much. so could the november election end in a so-called electoral landslide? you're going to want to hear what the former president bill clinton has told our own fareed zakaria. plus, now we have new information about mitt romney's taxes, will quiet calls for more returns to be released? i'll ask a top supporter, senator john mccain, he's standing by. [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese without freshly-made pasta. you could also cut corners by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese. but then...it wouldn't be

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benghazi taking their city back. they just in the last few minutes marched on the headquarters of the militant islamist organization. and they have managed to take it back. they say without firing a single shot. hundreds of them converging on this militia's headquarters. they say that the militia members fled fairly quickly. they stormed inside. they set a vehicle on fire. they say they freed at least 20 prisoners. one man who we walked passed said the rebel -- everyone's very exuberant cheering saying these are the real people of libya. this is what libyans really want. they don't want these extremist militias. and now they're trying to capitalize on this momentum, wolf.

they plan on storming other known headquarters of islamist militi militias. one thing that's been very striking is we have seen very few people with weapons. some members of the police force, of the army, of some of the accepted revolutionary brigades, the modern ones that do have weapons, but by and large these demonstrators are not armed. this is the libya people of benghazi literally taking their people back. wolf, it's pretty incredible to be witnessing this. >> that's very exciting news. let's not forget, arwa, our viewers should remember as well, it was only a few days ago when the u.s. ambassador was at the consulate in benghazi and he was shot -- he was killed. and three other americans were killed at the same time right in that same area where you are right now. arwa, hold on. i want to bring senator john mccain into this conversation. he's joining us now from capitol hill, the ranking member of the senate armed services committee. senator, you've been to benghazi, you've been to libya. give us your immediate reaction. you just heard this dramatic

report from arwa what's going on in benghazi. >> somewhere chris stevens is smiling. this is what we knew -- what chris stevens and i and others knew about libya. chris stevens and i were in tripoli as i'm sure your correspondent was on the night of july 7th after they had voted in overwhelming numbers to reject islamists, thousands were in the downtown and chris and i were down there. and as they drove by by the thousands said thank you especially to chris stevens, thank you, america. thank you. and they obviously overwhelmingly wanted to reject this radical islam, which has committed such a horrible crime. and i'm very happy about it. could i just mention one thing? it's interesting it comes when a few hours from now we're going to have a vote on a senator rand paul amendment to cut off all

aid and assistance to libya. this shows how ill-founded and frankly bad idea that senator paul and the isolationists have. >> senator paul while he was on the show the other day, he not only wants to end all u.s. aid to libya, pakistan, egypt, i think he wants to end all foreign aid to every country. but the question to you, senator, does he have the votes to do it? who's going to prevail in the senate? >> i'm confident that he does not. and i know that what's going on is more important. but, wolf, there's been a history in our party, the isolationist wing of our party going back to world war i, the henry cabot lodge, the league of nations and then in the '30s, charles lindbergh, henry ford, the taft wing and the eisenhower wing of our party. and this is always out there, this debate in hard economic times understandably that a

facet or part of our party gains traction. but history shows that the united states cannot retreat to fortress america. and when we do, we pay a very heavy price. >> i want you to listen to what the secretary of state hillary clinton said today about that extraordinary briefing yesterday behind closed doors to all members of congress by her and other u.s. intelligence and administration officials. listen to what she said today. >> yesterday afternoon when i briefed the congress, i made it clear that keeping our people everywhere in the world safe is our top priority. what happened in benghazi was a terrorist attack. and we will not rest until we have tracked down and brought to justice the terrorists who murdered four americans. >> you were at that briefing. >> yes. >> are you and the secretary of

state on the same page based on what you heard yesterday? >> well, first of all, the secretary and our ub ambassador and mr. carney and everybody else should be apologizing because they said this attack was a spontaneous attack which defied all logic. people don't bring mortars to spontaneous demonstrations. that's what they said. and there was a total reversal that she's saying today. second of all, she didn't tell us anything nor did the other people there at this briefing, secret briefing we had, and said that they couldn't give us any details because it was an ongoing investigation. so this morning in detail the whole situation was described to us. and as it happened in "the wall street journal" and the "new york times," it was frankly insulting to the united states senate. i know she's busy. we have something to do with our time rather than go in a secret room and be told, well, we can't tell you what happened. >> it's a sad story indeed if in fact they can't tell members of

the united states house and senate what's going on. but they have to read about it in the newspapers the next day. i spoke to david ignatius, the columnist for "the washington post." he has information and i want to run it by you senator, if you seem to agree, the killing of ambassador stevens, the u.s. ambassador at the consulate in benghazi and the other americans was revenge. he says he has some indication it was revenge for the u.s. taking out an al qaeda leader back in june. does that sound accurate based on everything you know? >> of course not. what it was is an al qaeda affiliated organization, the one that you're just seeing has been taken down by brave libyans that were involved in this operation. how long it was planned and all that is hard to know. but that's just -- i don't think it's logical. but it may have been. mr. ignatius has a direct line

to the administration since he always prints whatever they tell him to. so i think that to somehow allege that is as bogus as the first allegations that this was a result of a spontaneous demonstration, which is incredible. >> i will say david ignatius is a friend of mine, very solid reporter. >> he's been wrong on every issue. he's been wrong on the surge. he's been wrong about syria. he's been wrong about afghanistan. and he's wrong now. >> all right. you can disagree with david ignatius. i'm sure he disagrees with you from time to time, senator, as well. >> sure. >> on that surge, all the added forces additional troops are now out of afghanistan. u.s. down now to about 68,000 or 70,000 troops. they're supposed to stay, at least many of them, another two years, until the end of 2014. but the added troops are out,

the surge. are you happy about that? >> it's an abject fayer. first of all, the military advised 40,000 rather than 30,000. so we could never go to east, only south. and then of course the president kept announcing withdrawal which is not lost on our enemies and of course we now reach a point where we can't train and operate because of these horrible and terrible attacks by a uniformed afghans on uniformed americans. so how can we train them and equip them and have them ready to take over? it's impossible. so here we are -- by the way, attack on our most secure base, which is the biggest damage inflicted since the ted offensive in the vietnam war. so $200 million worth of u.s. aircraft were destroyed in the last few days. and this is a result of a failed

policy, over withdrawal which the president's ver uttered the word success or victory. and obviously the people in the neighborhood are making the necessary adjustments. we're failing in afghanistan. we've failed in iraq. iranian planes are now overflying iraq with surprise and arms to bashar al assad meanwhile 20,000 syrians have been killed and the president hasn't said a word much less provide them with weapons they could defend themselves with. >> senator mccain, tnks for coming in. >> thanks for having me on. >> senator mccain joinins from capitol hill. when we come back, mitt romney speaking out at unlv, university of nevada las vegas. we'll dip in and hear what he has to say after this. so how much do we owe you? that'll be $973.42. ya know, your rates and fees aren't exactly competitive. o do you t am, that'quicken loans? [ spokesman ] when you refinance your mortgage

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we're just getting this picture in of ann romney's plane. take a look. it was forced to make an emergency landing in colorado due to smoke in the cabin. u can see firefighters rushing on board. the cabin of the plane filled with smoke apparently due to an electrical fire. according to a campaign aide, romney's plane was headed to los angeles but landed in denver where it was met with emergency vehicles on the runway. the campaign spokeswoman, andrea sal tweeted "all okay, thank goodness." the candidate just spoke with his wife on the phone just before taking the stage in las vegas. everyone all right. ann romney's plane, the cabin filled with smoke apparently an electrical fire. let's go out to las vegas right now. mitt romney's speaking. i want to listen in a little bit. >> immigrants coming here

building our country. and the way, did you know that the immigrant community, latinos and other immigrants come here, they build new businesses more often than those of us have been here all of our lives. we welcome people who come here and build enterprises and put americans to work. and we want to help them. and he said it. he said it right there. he said, you know what, if you come here and you build a business, you did build that business. the government did not build that business. this is a time of choice for the country. this is a time when we can decide to go down the path president obama's put us on. he said he wants to pool our resources and reallocate. all right. he's going to take from some and give to others. this redistribution idea has

been tried in other places. this is not a new idea. it's just never worked in other places. it's certainly not going to work here. he wants a bigger and bigger government, trillion dollar deficits. what that leads to is not more people coming out of poverty, it's putting more people into poverty. look, government is there and must be there for people who need help for disabled, for the elderly that need help, for those that can't care for themselves. of course we are always going to be there. we are a compassionate people. but as someone has said, we don't measure compassion by how many people are on food stamps, we measure compassion by how many people can get off of food stamps and get a good job. cheers and applause ] i'm convinced the path he put us on is the path to europe. or i jokingly say to california, all right? and i don't want to go there. it's not working there.

i don't want to have it come here. i don't want to have a government getting bigger and bigger, more intrusive, telling us what kind of health insurance we have to have. i don't want to have a government that becomes so large that it smothers the american dream. i don't want to have a government that takes from some and gives to others. what i want to do is restore the principles of freedom that made america's economy work in the first place. i believe in the vision of founders. i believe when they said god gave us their rights, they were right. and among those rights are life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. [ cheers and applause ] we are not going to transform america into something we would not recognize. we will restore american greatness by restoring the principles of america. we will restore freedom. free opportunity for the american people to realize their

dreams. that's what's going to bring us back. i want to create those 12 million jobs. i want to help every citizen of this country have a bright and prosperous future. i want your children to know the future will be better than the past. we're going to make it happen. i need you to get me elected in november. let's get the job done. let's get america strong again. thank you so very much, nevada. thank you, las vegas. thank you. >> it's a key battleground state, nevada. in fact, the last cnn/orc poll showed likely voters choice for president obama 49%, romney 46%. three-point difference right there. but mitt romney obviously trying to fire up his supporters speaking at the university of nevada las vegas. and making some strong points against the president of the united states and his policies. we're going to hear a very, very different side of the story from the vice president joe biden. he's getting ready to give a speech in concord, new hampshire. another key battleground state there. you see the stage is now set for

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to say. standby. meantime, other news we're following including pakistan erupting into deadly violence today. lisa sylvester's monitoring that, some other top stories in "the situation room" right now. lisa, what's the latest? >> wolf, government calls for a peaceful protest on a hastily declared national holiday in pakistan disintegrated into chaos today. muslims angry over an anti-islamic film left 15 people dead and almost 80 more people injured in karachi. a full report from pakistan in our next hour. and general motors is recalling more than 400,000 of its sedans for a transmission glitch that may cause cars to roll over even in park. effects chevrolet, pontiac and saturn sedans. certain problems with cars with four-speed transmissions built between 2007 and 2010. they include chevy malibu, saturn ora and pontiac g-6

models. the federal government reportsue rose last month in 26 states, seven of which are key battleground states for the upcoming presidential election. the unemployment rate went dn in 12 states, only two ofss.ante nation's highest jobless rate at 12.1% in august. oil-rich north dakota has the lowest rate at 3%. and in just the past hour we have gotten word a man jumped from a monorail into a tiger pit at new york's bronx zoo. the zoo's director says emergency crews used a fire extinguisher to force a tiger away from that man. a spokesman tells cnn he has been transported to a local hospital. he is in critical condition. and a historic goose bumps moment for today for the spac edwards air force base this morning for final flight to los angeles international airport where it landed less than two hours ago. and it was the last g of the

orbiter's three-day piggyback journey. "endeavour" will travel last miles by ground to a science museum next month. those are great pictures we're seeing right now as it's passing over various cities. a lot of folks out there got a chance to see it as it went by, which was quite a treat, wolf. >> it was a thrill indeed i'm sure for all those folks. lisa, thank you. so could a cure for cancer soon be within reach? just ahead a top researcher tells our own dr. sanjay gupta exclusively the number of deaths could plummet, plummet in the next decade. [ male announcer ] introducing a reason to look twice. the entirely new lexus es and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet.

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everyone. now the fight against cancer is at a crossroads. within just a few years cancer deaths are expected to plummet. our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta got an exclusive interview with top researchers. listen to this. >> we're in a position to make dramatic impact on cancer mortality in this decade. >> you're saying if we do everything right, in five years from now there will be far fewer people dying from cancer, right? >> correct. i think that with the existing knowledge and the application of what we now know, we could begin to see dramatic declines in mortality that would accelerate in years five through ten and beyond set the stage for ultimate control of the disease. >> sanjay is joining us now. sanjay, this sounds huge. but how big of a deal is this. >>? >> i think it's a big deal. that man's runs the largest cancer trial center in the world. they've been building their

knowledge over a great period of time. i will tell you and you'll appreciate this, the mood down there is -- they call it the moon shop program. it's sort of had that same feel when president kennedy talked about putting a man on the moon, they're talking about this project sort of the same way. and they're targeting eight specific cancers saying we will dramatically reduce mortality by 50% or more just within the next few years. not a long way off. we have a list of those specific cancers as well. i believe take a look there, wolf. melanoma, lung cancer, that's the biggest cancer killer of all, prostate cancer, breast cancer, triple-negative, that's a tough cancer to treat. look at the list, audacious, wolf, but these are the cancer doctors at the forefront of all this. >> so what is the theory behind them eliminating melanoma, lung cancer, prostate cancer? how do they do it? what's the theory? >> one thing you can't ignore is first of all just preventing a lot of these diseases in the first place, screening is always going to be an important part of this. but i think this notion that people are becoming more

personalized in the way they can treat these as well. wolf, for example, if you had cancer and someone else your age another man had the same cancer, in fact the two cancers are very different even though they're both maybe lung or whatever type of cancer, the genes of that cancer, your genes, how it all interplays makes a huge difference in terms of how the cancer will behave and i think more importantly how it will get treated. right now it's sort of a one-size-fits-all approach. and i think individualized treatments is going to be a large part of this. again, they've been doing these clinical trials for some time. and they believe now based on everything that they know that they can make these huge sort of quantum leaps. it's not going to be that we're going to wake up and read wspape wch on tv and say cancer is now cured. but it's happening in slow degradation. >> you get conflicting advice, mammograms, for example, good or

bad? you get conflicting -- i don't know about you, but it's making a lot of people totally crazy. >> i think it's very hard even within the medical community there's been a lot of confusion on this. and doctors who are doctors who treat these types of cancers regularly, they still order these tests for their patients. i was just reading through governor romney's records, paul ryan, we'll talk about that later on in terms of the testing they had and this issue came up there as well. but i think in terms of m.d. anderson is doing, they are basically ready to say with the screening that we now know that works, early detection for things like lung cancer and treatments we're making some big steps. we met a guy, i don't know if you have video of him, brian rose, a baseball coach in the midwest. he has stage 4 melanoma. melanoma spread throughout his body. what we find is that he basically is getting a treatment where his immune system, his own immune system, is taught to fight the cancer. it's a remarkable therapy. what you're looking at there, wolf, is some in the first time in the world that this type of therapy has occurred. >> it's amazing, sanjay, thanks

very much. i know you'll be back next hou and talk about mitt romney, paul ryan, they medical rds y. interesting details in there especialllyau ryan, his father died mid-50s, grandfather died in his mid-50s. he's in his early 40s. he's in very good shape. but i want to talk to you about that. at'soing on, sanjay, don't go too far away. to our viewers, don't miss the special report "chasing the cure" it airs saturday 4:30 p.m. eastern and sunday morning 7:30 a.m. eastern onlyhere ocnn. and wick i be bathe next hour. we'll review the hea mitt romneyndaul ryan. 're just getti in from the senate majory leader harry reid reacting to the new tax information released by mitt romney today. and it's a blistering statement. he's not backing down at all in his accusations agains icesidtial minee. let me j rad line from

this lengthy statement. "thenfortion eltoda revealthat mitt romney manipulated e of the only two years of tax returns he seen fit to show the amican pple a then only to "conform" with his public statements." reid goes onto say "it's also galling to see the creative accounting mitt romney applied to his own tax returns only day afterlening of his insulting commen that seniors, soldiers and rd-working parents don't pay enough taxes." the statement goes onto say more. one thing it does n say is that harry id saidarliere chged mitty romne ten years when he was at bain pi blistering tough stemen agnst the republican presidential nominee butarly a strong statement. much more on this coming up. joe biden, by the way, is getting ready to speak in

concord, new hampshire. he's just been introduced. he's doing some obligatory thank yous. when we come back, we're going to hear from joe biden. he's always outspoken. president obama: i'm barack obama and i approve... this message. anncr: he keeps saying it... mitt romney: this president cannot tell us that you're... better off today than when he took office. anncr: well... here's where we were in 2008... tv anncr: the worst financial collapse... since the great depression... tv anncr: american workers were laid off in numbers not seen... in over three decades. anncr: agrowth. we're not there yet. but the real question is: whose plan is better for you? the president's plan asks millionaires... to pay a little more... to help invest in a strong middle class. clean energy. and cut the deficit.

mitt romney's plan? a new 250,000 dollar tax break for... multi-millionaires. roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy. and raise taxes on the middle class. president clinton: they want to go back to the same old... policies that got us in trouble in the first place. president obama: we're not going back, we are moving forward. anncr: forward.

medicare is a hot issue right now, joe biden is in concord speaking about it. >> let me tell you what they say about us and about what their plan would actually do. it would immediately cut benefits for recipients of medicare on medicare today. it would california the medicaid trust fund to become insolvent

in 2016. and they're for voucher care. they have a plan where by you will be literally taken off of medicare, given a voucher that is a premium support, whatever phrase they use, and say to your 80-year-old mom, you can now go out, by the time is kicks in, you can go on the market mom, and compete for the best plan you can get. and you can buy back into medicaid if y-- medicare if you want. the cbo that is always being quoted by romney and ryan suggest that the first plan they put forward would cost an average senior $6400 a year out of their pocket to keep the same medicare benefits they have today. it also points out the new plan they have, if you're 55 years old, and it won't kick in for

ten years, will cost you $60,000 more to be on medicare. not a year, but the lifetime you're on it. if you're 45 years old, it will be $125,000 more for the lifetime of it. barack obama and i will never allow medicare to be turned from a guaranteed program into a voucher program. we will never allow that to happen. as we listen to their convention, they had this urgent concern about the national debt. they talked about the clock ticking behind them. it is an urgent concern. they told you they care, but what they didn't tell you is every single proposal put cut the deficit, the proposal simpson bowles convention, they voted no or resisted or said

they would be no part of why. the agait any plan to cut the national debt. so you get the point, the vice president in his stump speech, we will continue to monitor what he is saying. more on that coming up. we're also breaking down mitt romney's tax returns, health records and more after this. which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety.

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presidethis message. barack obama and i approve... anncr: he keeps saying it... mitt romney: this president cannot tell us that you're... better off today than when he took office. anncr: well... here's where we were in 2008... tv anncr: the worst financial collapse... since the great depression... tv anncr: american workers were laid off in numbers not seen... in over three decades. anncr: and here's where we are today... thirty months of private sector job growth. creating 4.6 million new jobs. we're not there yet. but the real question is: whose plan is better for you? the president's plan asks millionaires... to pay a little more... to help invest in a strong middle class. clean energy. and cut the deficit. mitt romney's plan? a new 250,000 dollar tax break for... multi-millionaires. roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy. and raise taxes on the middle class. president clinton: they want to go back to the same old... policies that got us in trouble in the first place. president obama: we're not going back, we are moving forward. anncr: forward.

[ male announcer ] the exceedingly nimble, ridiculously agile, tight turning, fun to drive 2013 smart. ♪ happengnow, a surprise for mitt romney. new information about his taxes and his health. big news from iran, a top official admits lying about their nuclear program. and criticism about the new apple iphone 5.

i'm wolf blitzer, you're in the situation room. we begin with what may be mitt romney's latest attempt to change the subject after a brutal week out there on the campaign trail. this afternoon, his campaign released new information about romney's taxes and health evaluations of romney and his running mate congressman paul ryan. jim acosta has the latest for us out in nevada. >> mitt romney arrived here knows it's always a safe bet to do a document dump on a friday. his camign releasedis2011, s health anden >> reporter: mitt romney came to las vegad rolle dice releasinnew tax information in the hopes of putting alinger campaign issue to rest. according to his return, he paid nearly $2 million in taxes on

almost $4 in income. romney had to make adjustments to get to that figure. according to that 2011 return, he donated $2 million to charity, but only claimed a reduction of $2.25 million. he paid more in taxes to conform to the estimate that he paid a 13% rate. that's despite what he said when he was asked if he paid anything less than 13%. >> if i had paid more than are legally due, i don't think i would be qualified to become president. >> the campaign posted this letter from the tax preperrer stating that the candidate had paid federal and state income taxes for more than 20 years. that appeared to be a direct

response to harry reid who claims that romney paid no income taxes for a decade. >> the word is out he has not paid any taxes for ten years. let him prove he has, because he has not. >> despite the flood of questions, he will not release more than two ars. >> those are the two years that people will have, and that's all that's necessary for people to understand something about my finances. >> the document dump comes after a week of attacks. presidenobama on that hidden video of romney talking about the 47% of americans he said are dependent on the government. >> i don't see a lot of victims in this crowd today. >> and romney on the president's > the president today through in the white flag of surrender again. he said he can't change washington from inside. he can only change it from

outside. >> the romney campaign also released letters from the physicians of both candidates. they both were said to be in good health. >> there was a scare as you know involving ann romney's campaign plane, tell our viewers what happened. >> wolf, we don't have all of the information, but what we understand is that ann romney's plan was going to denver this afternoon. the plane was filling with smoke, and it made what the campaign called an emergency landing in denver, but according to a romney press aid, mitt romney called ann romney just before coming out to talk to the supporters here in las vegas. ann said that all was well, everybody was fine, no problems or injuries as a result of that flight, but as you see from the picture, this was an emergency situation, and i'm sure startled

and rattled a lot of people on that flight. >> must have been scary in there when the plane saw smoke in the cabin, apparently a electrical fire. fortunately everyone is okay, and ann romney is just fine. thank you for that jim acosta. the headline from mitt romney's health evaluation is he has no impairment that's should interfere with being president of the united states. dr. sanjay gupta is here, you looked over the letters, how do they look? >> these are summary letters from their doctors. you remember when senate eor mccain, we got medical records, but we got these letters of summary. it looks good, a couple of rnor romney overall, his overall alth is strong and physically

fit, things like his height, weight, body mass index. that is in normal range, does not smoke or drink, and there was a couple of things to note. just overall, he does have slightly elevated cholesterol levels, he takes a lipator for that. >> he does, how high? >> we only got the numbers after he is on the lipitor, and it's about 184 - >> did they say how many milligrams? >> if it's 40 that's a lot. >> yeah, that's the problem with the summaries, you don't get all of that information. overall in pretty good health. they both have aistory of heart disease, both governor romney and congressman ry. as you point outrom what we can gather there, pretty healthy, both of them. >> he said i worked out once in a hotel gym, he was on a machine, and he was working and

sweating pretty good. i was impressed. he was in pretty good shape. he is 65 years old. paul ryan is what, 42ea old? >> yeah, that was the first time they had a candidate younger. >> he is 42 years old, but his father died in his mid-50s, so did his grandfather, he is in great physical shape. >> yes, i think about this all the time, i have a famy well. there is plenty of things he can do and it sounds like he to try not to meet the same fate as his father and grandfather. he has high density proteml i above 70, that's usually from exercise, and it sounds like his weight and body mass are in good shape. president clinton had eight years of executive health as

president, and a few years after that had heart surgery. in with that family history needs to be monitored pretty carefully which they both have. i have their letters of summation in front of me and it seems like they're both diligent about getting those exams. >> going back to mitt romney, he is a mormon, so no caffeine, no alcohol, i assume that makes him healthier. >> we did a story about this. on average, morman men live ten years on average more than normal men. >> yes, and women six more years. >> they don't think it's because of the no alcohol use. there's a couple things, smoking being the big one, simply not smoking is a large part of that, and being part of the community, having more than 12 years of education, and being in a long-lasting marriage, those are the things they point to as a

reason that mormans typically live longer. >> who knew. >> smoking is bad, we can agree. >> and it's good to see you in person. i don't get to this do this very often. >> thank you, you can check blood pressure later. kate has more of today's top stories, s a great guy, wish you were here >> me too, looks like you're having a lot of fun. to get caught up on some headlines, we'll go to pakistan first, the government made today a national holiday so people could go out and protest the made in the u.s. video. it resulted in 15 deaths. we were in the middle of that mess in islab >> at this point, it'you see th.

sticks and stones, and police just holding up their shields and blocking the objects. now police officers are starting to throw rocks, and -- i think it's time for us to move back a little bit. now, what often gets lost in these dramatic pictures is the actual numbers. how many people are here? and if you do a quick count, there is no more than, at most 400 or 500 people here. >> we had to make a run for it because police fired off several canisters of tier gas. we had difficulty sees and breathing. so we came back here to where there is a rally taking place.

here is what we observed. a lot of the protesters are young men, teenagers in their 20s, and you see them with a smile, and you get the impression that they're not offended by anti-islam movie, that they're getting a rush off of facing off with police. and sonnen you see the signs, the chants against the u.s. government and the nato rounds. that's a sign that this is more than just about an anti-islam movie. there's a lot of anger about u.s. foreign policy, the occupation of afghanistan, and a lot of people here will tell you what's boiled over is a deep seeded anti-american sentiment that's been here for a long time. >> now to syria where the president says the door to dialogue is open. he ao saysgue with the opposition is the o way todress

country. if ieed to remind you, an estimates 26,000 people have died in the year and a half long conflict if you can believe it. finally, the space shuttle endeavor finished it's final flight today. endeavour logged nearly 23 million miles. around the middle of next month, it's last trip will be by road to the l.a. science museum. it offered some pretty amazing views to everyone who could catch a glimpse. >> love that picture indeed. you will want to watch us later this hour. fareed zakaria asks bill clinton if he sees an electoral landslide coming this november. up next, a top iranian nuclear official admits something the united states suspected all along.

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iran's atomic energy official now admits he lied. >> yes, and the questions now, will anyone believe iran's denials that they're trying to build a nuclear weapon. let's go to susan kelly. these are fascinating details. >> yes, it is fascinating and the comments were very direct. as you know, the most direct admission yet of iran's response to what it calls efforts by the west to spy on it's nuclear program. which is it a defensive move or an act of defiance. he said that not everything iran said about their nuclear program is true.

he accused brit irk foreign intelligence on spies and they presented false information to protect our nuclear sights. going on to say question often show weakness that we do not suffer from in reality and at times we show strength that we do not possess. he does not specify just who the iranians lied to, but the state department didn't seem surprised. >> it's telling that iran is filely admitting that it lies about it's nuclear program. this further increases their concern about what the real story is in iran. >> this, as inspectors from the international atomic energy agency continues to push for unfettered access. they insist that the nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. but it complicate as relationship between iran and

the iaea. but it does make the mission to verify that iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program all the more difficult according to a former inspector. >> we have seen this for quite some time, about a decade. when this all came up, you know, it started with deception and not telling -- >> the comments puts pressure on the u.s. to draw a red line. a point, that if reached, would most likely be met with military response. they addressed those sentiments as well says the united states did not strike iran militarily yet because it's not capable of doing so. >> now, it's important to note that iranian news outlets are not reporting this story, and cnn reached out, but we have not gotten a response yet. >> as the iaea responded?

>> they haven't. we asked their thoughts, and they're not comments on the reported statements, but former inspectors said in the past that political rhetoric on both sides can make their job much touer. >> that's the understatement of the year. thank you, wolf, as suzanne said, it comes at an atime with iran ratcheting up the pressure on the u.s. to draw those lines. yes, and now an american has been held captive there for five years. how his family is now hoping to intervene. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters.

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it's been nearly five-and-a-half years since a retired fbi eight disappeared. now his wife has gone to new york to plead for his help. susan, what are the chances of that meeting taking place? >> hi, wolf. the chances are not. the president has nver agreed in the past to a meeting with mrs. levinson, but he is arrived next week, and bob's wife won't stop asking for help, desperate to bring her husband home. >> it's my husband, i have to take care of him, i have to get him home. >> after disappearing more than five years ago, he is a long way from home where he once cuddled his new-born grandson. >> i'm not in very good health. i'm running very quickly out of

diabetes medicine. >> this video showing the thinner retired fbi agent was sent to the family two years ago. the state department says it's unclear who is holding him. >> when we got the video, we had high hopes. we e-mailed a number of times to get wever is holding him to let us know what to do to get bob home. >> he disappeared off of iran's coast in 2007 where his family says he was investigating cigarette smuggling for a private company. fbi billboards are now up in new york's time square in hopes at visiting degatesrom the u.n.'s general assembly will see them. >> what makes you think he is still alive? >> i just believe it in my heard. i know that from the vide that he has lost weight and hopefully all of his health problems are

at least at bay and he will be able to get home safely to us. >> please help me get home. 33 years of service to the sothin stateseserves >> what gives you hope when you look at that video and see how he looks? >> i know when he looks determined, and he looked very determined to make it home safe and sound. >> her hsband missed walking one of his daughters down the aisle. another daughter's aisle is is in february. >> his closet is full of clothes that will not fit him any more. >> if he is able to see this, what do you want to say directly for him? >> we will never, ever stop looking for you. i miss you everyday, love you. >> the u.s. offered no new

information about where he is and who is looking for him. i spoke with a source with knowledge of the investigation that says "there is every reason to believe based on all of the evidence that levinson is alive and well." and the strange relationship between the united states and iran makes this even more difficult. >> certainly does, hopefully he will be home soon. bill clinton is talking to cnn about the latest developments for the race for the white house including mitt romney's 47% comments, and the possibility of an obama electoral landslide. copd makes it hard to breathe, but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve

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and the breaking news happening right now in libya, more violence happening. arwa damon is joining us on the phone right now. update our viewers because the drama is unfolding right now on the streets of benghazi. >> this very much is their reaction to that, wolf. there was a massive demonstration held earlier today by prodemocracy individuals. it was hundref em that later on, the very same night, just a short while ago went and stormed the headquarters.

they were burning a car and other parts of the bidding as well. we saw the smoke rising. there was a euphoric sense among people that said they're the ones that started the revolution, they would take their city back. they're demanding that the government rain in the extremist militias. but we really saw things taking something of a sinister turn. we lef the headquarters, we were hearing pretty intense gunfire. it was unclear who was firing at whom. but at particular battalion has been endorsed by the government. and what people are telling us, is that progadhafi loyalist have

gone to attack this location as well, but it has now turned into something of of a minor gun battle taking place there. but it really just goes to show you how chaotic the sittion here can be, andlso how easily manipulated people's emotions are at this point in time. >> how dangerous is the situation on the streets of benghazi? i can't tell you how many people arew and sending me e-mails asking about your security over there, what's going on? >> reporter: we're fine, wolf. we're keeping our distance and taking cover. it's just -- it's getting a lot of -- plus, a group of inviduals who we watching what was taking place unfolding. and it was interesting to hear that conversation because they initially, themselves were part

of these militias that exist out there, but the news began trickling in that no, they are the bad guys, and the battalion is the ones endorsed by the government. one of the libyan members of our team just got off the phone with a spokesman for the february 17th brigade, that is the same one that came to the aid of the americans that were inside the u.s. consulate. they're trying to bring the situation under control, calm people's emotions down, and we're looking at the situation being controlled. based on the rumors flying around the street that perhaps the attack was instigated, perhaps people wanted to create

conflicts. we're hearing a number of detainees, people detains during the revolution and throughout the revolution as well. >> arwa damon on the ground for us in benghazi, watching what's going on, and dramatic things happening. bill clinton sat down with our own fareed zakaria in new york, you will want to hear what he just said. my symptoms were a pain in my abdomen and periods that were heavier and longer than usual for me. if you have symptoms that last two weeks or longer, be brave, go to the doctor. ovarian and uterine cancers are gynecologic cancers. symptoms are not the same for everyone. i got sick...and then i got better.

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former president bill clinton is giving his take on this week's dramatic develop accidents for the race for the white house.

they are planning to host leaders next week for the global initiative. >> he started by talking about the mitt romney video. >> do you think what mitt romney said about the 47% had an element of truth? do you think there is a problem that a growing number of americans are department on various forms of government, subsidies, or benefits in various ways? >> no. do i think there are some americans who are trapped in a is a problem. that's why i supported welfare reform to change i froman entitlement system to a work-based, empowerment system. but the money we spend is not out of line with other advanced countries. we spend a smaller percent of our gdp than almost any other

country. d the47% that are adults do they pay social security taxes, th pay mede taxes, state and local taxes. i saw a graph today that said basically if you break us down into 20%, and you k the top own into 10, 5, 4, 1. we wind up paying in proportion to the amount of income. we should always be trying to promote empowerment over dependen dependency. but the american people can easily be misled, that may be too strong of a word, but confused now because when you have a recession this deep, spending goes up on things like

unemployment, food stamps, medicare for health care, and revenues drop because people are not making as much money. a lot of those people that don't pay ordinary income tax would love to be paying ordinary income tax. they would love a full-time or part-time job or any job at all were or to get a pay raise. as those numbers improve, their incomes will go back up and they will go back into tax brackets again. >> if you look at the numbers, obama is leading in almost all of the swing states, and if it's accurate, it could translate into an electoral landslide, is that possible? >> it's possible, but we still don't know who will vote. he won an enormous victory in people under 30, but they are disproportionately more likely to be stuck in part-time jobs,

be unemployed, or stuck. will they vote? how much will the vote be lessennlessen lessened or reduced that in enseptember for florida, the advanced voting has been cut down to eight days, which is an arrow aimed straight down the heart of the african-american churches who pull up in the church buss and take the elderly people without cars to the polls to vote. how will that affect the turn out. no one has ever done anything quite this blatant in my lifetime. i think you have to assume it's a close rate, a hard fight, and fight through it. we had a very good convention. he got a good boost out of it. i think people kind of get that we were so damaged that we could

not be back to full health in four years. the real question is, who has the better plan for the future. i think he will win that argument. >> good interview, you can watch the entire interview with bill clinton sunday morning 10:00 a.m. eastern, and 1:00 p.m. eastern only here on cnn. let's dig in more on what president clinton said about the campaign and presidential politics with gloria. what do you make of what president clinton said there. he had a lengthy answer to the 47% question. how helpful or hurtful is president clinton as a surrogate. >> on a scale from one to ten, ten bes the most helpful, he is an 11. he is a former president, but the last time, he was like 66%

favorable. you can see he is not only favored among democrats, but lots of republicans like him because they recall the clinton economy. he is a terrific explainer. he often explains president obama's policies better than the president himself. and that's what he did in his convention speech. there is no counter part on the other side. even if george w. bush were to go out on the campaign trail, even if he were to do that, he's not that popular among independents or certainly among democrats, and even lots of republicans don't like him because they consider him a big spender. there is no equivalent to bill clinton in the political world right now, so he is surrogate number one is which is why you see him doing campaign ads. >> gloria, it's interesting, the

good work that the former president has been doing over the years, raising literally billions of dollars, he not only has the president of the united states, barack obama coming, but mitt romney will be speaking at the cgi next week as well. it's pretty impressive when you think about it. both of these candidates thousands up. >> right, and all bill clinton had to do was ask. john mccain also went to speak there. so i think that this is bill clinton, who now occupies such a level of popularity that these candidates are happy to go speak to the clinton global initiative. nevermind the miraculous work you were talking about that the initiative does, but to a certain degree, and you heard this at the republican convention, republicans look back at the clinton boom in the economy and say "this is what we need to get back to." and don't forget, newt gingrich in the primaries was talking

about working with bill clinton on, of course, welfare reform. who better to debunk republican notions about how barack obama is rolling back on welfare reform than on the author himself, bill clinton. >> quickly, bill clinton says he thinks president obama has the advantage right now which is no surprise, but is he right? is he talking motivation? >> he's right, but it was so great to listen to him. of course he is right that president obama has the advantage. bill clinton above all else is a terrific politician. what he did not want to do was depress turnout. what he was saying is no, they're trying to turn away voters at churches, so you have to get out there to vote. i mean it was a bill clinton answer, and it was great. >> a bill clinton answer, exactly. we'll all be watching together.

thanks so much. >> so we just heard bill clinton, up next, mitt romney is not talking about the state of his campaign and whether he thinks he needs to turn it around. and a historic day in washington dc. something we have not seen in the nation's capitol since 1933. i' you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everydayou see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank.

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. let's get back to the release today of more of mitt romney's tax records, erin burnett is going out front with the former democratic party

chief. what's going on there? >> we're talking about the bottom line here, we expected mitt romney to come out with the formal returns for 2011 and he did. he put out all of these bullet points and headlines for the last 20 years. will it be enough or not? we have been combing through this and have very interesting take aways. i'll just say this. his hesitancy to put out all of the tax returns is interesting on the same day we get his medical records, right, and his regular heart rate when he rests is in the 40s, ten milligrams of lipitor daily. but the taxes seem to be more personal to him than literally his insides. back to you. >> you'll explain more at the top of the hour, we'll see you then. thank you, mitt romney meanwhile has been sitting down with "60 minutes" for an interview.

they just released this clip, we'll show it to you. >> you're slipping in the polls at this moment. a lot of republicans are concerned about this campaign. you bill yourself as a turn around artist, how will you turn this campaign around? margin of error. we bounce around week to week, day to day. there's some days we're up, there's some days we're down. we go forward with my message that this is a time to reinvigorate the american economy, not by expanding government and raising taxes on people, but instead by making sure government encourages in your opinionship and invo nation and gets the private sector hiring again. >> that wasn't precisely the question. you're the ceo of this campaign. a lot of republicans would like to know a lot of your donors would like to know how do you turn this thing around? you've got little more than six weeks. what do you do? >> well, it doesn't need to turn around. we've got a campaign which is tied with an incumbent president of the united states. >> as you know, a lot of people were concerned about the video

of the fund-raiser in which you talked about the 47% of the american people who don't pay taxes. peggy noonan, a very well-known conservative columnist, said that it was an example of this campaign being incompetent, and i wonder if any of that criticism gets through to you and whether you're concerned about it at all -- >> that's not the campaign, that was me, right? >> you are the campaign. >> i have got a very effective campaign. it's doing a very good job, but not everything i say is elegant, and i want to make it very clear, i want to help 100% of the american people. >> not everything i say is elegant, he said. he's been saying that line for a few days now, kate. >> that's absolutely right. it seems he's trying, trying, trying to get back on message. a very interesting interview. still ahead, complaints about its new map app are souring apple's release of the latest iphone. we'll show you what has some users complaining so much about.

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so i brought it to mike at meineke. we gave her car a free road handling check. i like free. free is good. my money. my choice. my meineke. there's some huge news coming out of washington, d.c. right now. the washington nationals major league baseball team officially clinched a playoff spot last night. this is the first time a washington team will play postseason baseball, get this, since the 1933 world series. franklin roosevelt became presidentha year and t out the first pitch of the series which the then washington senators lost to the then new york giants. it's also the year construction began on the golden gate bridge, prohibition ended after a 14-year run, and the big movie of the year, "king kong." there have been 13 different presidents during washington's

playoff drought, and as you can see in these pictures, there's a lot more traffic on pennsylvania than there was 79 years ago. so congratulations to the washington nationals for bringing baseball back to washington, d.c. go nats. >> i can hear the grin from ear to ear. give them your favorite line. >> #gnatitude. we have the best record in major league baseball and we're going, going, going. >> very good. that's a very big deal. also a big deal, the new release of the iphone. if you can believe it back in 1933 people stood in lines, long ones, to make a phone call. now they're standing in lines for apple's latest gadget. the new iphone 5 went on sale in stores today but at least one thing about it has people underset. brian todd has been looking into that problem. what is this all about? >> it's about the map application. you know, by most accounts this is a sleek new version of the iphone. it's already very popular, but if you want to use it to go

point a to point b, be patient. >> reporter: from australia to arlington, virginia, they lined up for apple's latest version of what's become an i caan, the iphone 5. it's faster, lighter, has a bigger screen than the previous iphone, but there's one feature that's being widely slammed, its map application. >> so i think there was a little bit of disappointment when we started seeing a lot of kinks in it. there's a lot of blogs that are pushing out problems here and problems there across the globe. >> reporter: apple has just moved away from google's operating system for maps and rolled out its own to compete with google. the early result, users say it steers them to the wrong places, even omits locations altogether. we tested the new operating system out using an ipad trying to find a local hotel. we typed in howard johnson on the new map app knowing this hotel in northeast washington has been here for several years. when it came up, it did not show this location but others in this area that are many miles away. now, you compare that to

google's map application, and this address comes up on the first try. let's try cnn washington, d.c., and see where it takes us. okay. heading there now. here we are now as close as we can get to the spot it told us to go, but hold on a second. that's the south lawn of the white house. the apple map failed to put us in the right spot the first few tiwe tri it. over dam the apples e road atighteneral location but it's going right into the r rather than over the bridge that's there. experts say the problems are because apple's new system uses less data to powerthe app compared to google's huge base ofa point some folks who lined up were upset, but it doesn't seem enough to steer them away from the iphone 5. should ple have mae gotten the map feature a little better? >> yes, i do think they should have put a little bit more enneerininto the maps. >> in response to0k the complaints, an apple spokeswoman told us they knew the% launchi of the new map system was an

ambitious project, that they're committed to improving the le use it the beer iwi get. ka andolf. >> but even thgh, you know despite the caints,ianbr eems pret clear that it's not stopping people fr bung the iphone. it's on track to set some pretty wild records, yeah? >> it really can be, kate. at least in the united states. one analyst estimates based on counts in new york, boston, and minneapolis, the lines today were on average about 83% longer than the lines for the iphone 4s last october. whatever the flaws are in this device, it's always popular, as you know. >> a lot of talk about it in the newsroom just today. brian todd, thanks so much. >> remember, we're always following what's going on in "the situation room." you can follow us on twitter. you can tweet me @wolfblitzer and tweet kate. lots of news today. >> i know we don't talk fashion very much, but i have to ask you before we go to tell our